


For Knowledge

by Elsin



Category: Original Work
Genre: Experimental Style, Gen, Libraries, Supernatural Elements, Trick or Treat: Trick
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26804191
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elsin/pseuds/Elsin
Summary: They say you can find her in the library.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 26
Collections: Trick or Treat Exchange 2020





	For Knowledge

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shadaras](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadaras/gifts).



They say you can find her in the library. She isn’t easy to find, even then—but. You  _ can _ find her in the library.

(Or so they say.)

Go down to the basement. Go down a level after that, into the so-called storage areas where students aren’t allowed.

(They used to be allowed here. There is a reason they no longer are.)

The air down here is still. Silent. It seems like the sort of place where no one has been for a very long time.

The books are not in boxes.

The books are still on the shelves.

The books are not dusty.

The  _ shelves _ are dusty. So is the floor. But dust dares not land on the books.

(Do not touch them. Do not look too closely at them. They are watching you. Do not watch them back.)

They say you can find her at the back of this floor, two levels below the ground. They say she will be there, paging through a book, facing the door.

(What door, you ask? There is no door. Not to you.)

This is not always the case, but it will be when you go there.

She does not like groups of people. You must go alone.

This is not safe. Nothing down here is safe.

(You should turn back. You will not turn back. You’ve come too far to consider turning back.)

This is not safe. Remember that this is not safe.

They say she can help students, if she cares to. Her whims are her own, though, and they are strange and fey. They say she can promise you the world.

Do not trust her. Be very careful in trusting her words.

Once you get there, approach her slowly. Do not startle her. Do not look too closely at the books. The floor is probably safe, as is the ceiling—but nothing is certain down here.

(You can still turn back.)

“Give me a moment,” she will say when you approach her. She will mark her page and put the book down, then close her eyes and turn her face up to you.

She opens her eyes one at a time. Right, then left; they would be normal brown eyes if not for the glittering sclerae. She keeps going after that. There are five more eyes on her face, and each looks stranger than the last. All of them glitter, even the ones in the shadows.

When all her eyes are open—no one, save perhaps her, knows quite how many there are—she will smile. Her smile is wide. Her smile is  _ too _ wide. When she opens her mouth, there is only darkness behind her lips.

(You cannot turn back.)

“Hello,” she will say. “Would you give me your name?”

Do not give her your true name. Do not give her a name anyone calls you by. Do not give her a name you  _ identify _ with. Do not give her a name you have given her before, if you dare come here twice.

(You will give her an online nickname. You think this is distant enough. It is not.)

Her smile can stretch even wider. She will repeat the name you gave her back to you. Then she will say, “Why have you come here?”

(You must tell her the truth. You must not tell her  _ too much _ of the truth.)

“For knowledge,” you will say, as everyone who comes to her does.

It is known how she came to be here, in the second basement under the library, all her eyes fixed on anyone who dares enter her domain. The stories vary in the specifics, but through them all the core is the same.

They say that, long ago, a girl came down here to read the books. She did not have a mindshield or a warding rune. She simply came and went as she would, and every day her spells grew stronger, her hands quicker, her eyes clearer.

They say that one day she came down the stairs, sat down at this desk, and never got up. They say that this floor has not been safe since that day, so long ago. No one knows when this was, but her clothes have not been in fashion for a very long time.

(This floor has never been safe.)

She answers three questions, if you dare ask that many. Her answers to common questions can be trusted. She does not  _ lie. _ She never lies.

(There are other ways to deceive people.)

Do not trust her if you wish to know a deeper truth or secret ritual. She will give these to you, if you ask. She will not tell you the price if you do not ask for it. Even then, you must beware.

Thank her when you are done with your questions. Be careful how you phrase this; you do not want to put yourself in her debt. But you must thank her—you do not want to give offense either.

“You’re welcome,” she will say, her smile still too wide. There is an inky shadow behind her; do not look at it. It does not like to be watched. “Come back any time.”

Do not say anything. Nod to her, politely. Turn away before you move away.

Do not look back.

(Orpheus looked back and lost his love. You will lose far more than that if you make the same mistake.)

Go up to the first basement. Climb back into the main library, open and airy, with the books you can look at and dust that will settle.

Leave the library. Step out into the sunlight. Let it soak into your skin and chase the chill away.

(You won’t notice the chill until it is gone.)

Do not look at the shadows as you go. They are still watching.

(You will always leave the second basement of the library with as much as you came in with. You have come out with new knowledge. You have left something of yourself behind.)

Go about your day. When you return to your classes, your hands are quicker. Your sight is clearer.

Your spells have grown stronger.


End file.
